In 2004, the American Academy
of Pediatrics brought together a Patient Safety Advisory Group to consider
how the Academy could provide leadership and support to make care safer
for children and families.

One of the suggestions was a listserv to enable those involved in patient
safety to learn from one another. Another idea was a series of conference
calls, "Things That Work," to share best practices with colleagues.
The Advisory Group chose implementation of a safety bundle, safety walkrounds,
and medication reconciliation as the first three topics for these calls.
Participants were able to access the presenter's PowerPoint presentations,
ask questions during the call, and continue the discussion with colleagues
following each call via the moderated listserv. To sign up for the listserv,
contact Pat Wajda at pwajda@aap.org.

This is the beginning of a
series of activities that the AAP hopes will involve all the systems
in which we care for children including inpatient, intensive care unit,
emergency department, ambulatory setting, home health, schools, and
daycare.

ResourcesPatient safety leadership walkrounds.
In the WalkRounds concept, a core group, which includes the senior executives
and/or vice presidents, conducts weekly visits to different areas of
the hospital. The group, joined by one or two nurses in the area and
other available staff, asks specific questions about adverse events
or near misses and about the factors or systems issues that led to
these events.BMC
Health Services Research. 2005 April 11;5(1):28.
The effect of executive walk rounds on nurse safety climate attitudes:
a randomized trial of clinical units. A randomized control trial
was conducted by a group of experts in the subject of Executive Walkrounds
and measurement of safety climate attitudes.The study looked specifically
at how walkrounds affected nurses, as measured with safety climate surveys.